MovieChat Forums > A Little Princess (1995) Discussion > Question about the book (spoilers)

Question about the book (spoilers)

posted 15 years ago by EmilyTheDramaQueen
18 replies | jump to latest

I've never read the book but I've heard that Sara's dad really is dead in it so at the end of the book what happens Sara since the ending of this movie is not possible with the dad being dead?

[–] inthedarkforever 15 years ago

I don't know how the movie end [watching it right now], but the he invests his money into a diamond mine, only to find that there aren't any diamonds, he gets brain fever and dies. The man who took his money felt really awful and spends his time looking for Sara, He moves in next door and ends up hearing about the girl who lives in the attic and they eventually meet and find out she's the girl he's been looking for.

"All we were searching for was someone or something to believe in"

[–] angelgwen16 15 years ago

I found this book in a used bookstore and bought it on impulse since I love the movie. After the dad died and I even checked the back to see if he actually was really truly dead. When I found out he was I got so mad that I put the book down and haven't touched it since.

Is the ending really worth reading? So many things were different that I couldn't stand it. Normally books are better than the movies, but with this one that didn't seem to be true.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] angelgwen16 15 years ago

Thanks for letting me know. I'll dig out my copy of it and give it another try once I'm done with the series I'm currently reading.

Thanks everyone!

[–] DarlingRougey 15 years ago

The ending is more believable..

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] pryingdelilah 14 years ago

Haha, I read this book when I was little, and HATED the movies because they made the ending so Hollywood. I suppose it's one of those cases when the ending that you first encountered is the best!
I swear I was the only little girl who was disappointed that the father was alive at the end.

"Why does a rose symbolize love if a rose always dies?"

[–] entertainmentalice 14 years ago

Oh, I'm sorry you put the book down! I read the book as a little girl, read it to my daughters, and am now reading it again. The book is so far better than the movie that I despise the film. I really do.

The main reason I dislike the film so much is that Sara isn't at ALL the quality person she is in the book. In the book, she is above EVERYONE in her dignity and behavior. She is kind, calm, and sees being a princess as behaving with dignity no matter WHAT happens to you. She talks about the suffering in the Bastille and values behaving honorably.

In the film, she and Becky engage in stupid pranks to get back at people. Yes, it's visually beautiful - but the story is ugly. Just plain ugly.

In the book, she DOES stand up to Miss Minchin and is honest and true - and is so calm and self-possessed that it really angers Miss Minchin. She's MARVELOUS! In the film, she's more of an average, spiteful child.

Sure, her father dies. Fathers DO die. Mothers do, too. In fact, I have two children whose parents died and their story has a very happy ending. They are fine, well-adjusted adults. But when their parents died, it was terrible for them.

The books has magnificent beauty of spirit, magical joy, and is an utter delight. I shall never subject myself to that wretched film again - and both of my daughters, who love the book, swear their children will NEVER see the film until they grow up and see it for themselves!

I do hope you'll give it another chance. It is absolutely beautiful. The movie is terrible. Truly.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] Sofistali 13 years ago

No, I have to agree with the poster who made the case for the book. In the book, Sara is an inspiring person. I read it when I was very young, and it influenced me all my life to try (at least TRY) to be a better person. To not sink to the level of others, to not engage in petty tit-for-tat actions, to endeavor to set a good example... I might not always succeed, but I try, and I try because that book influenced me profoundly.

The movie might be more likely to entertain you, distract you for a couple hours, move your emotions... but the Sara in the movie is more likely to win your pity than your respect. The movie is just another emotionally-manipulative fairy story. The book is a guide to life.

[–] genuinelyexcited 13 years ago

I think it's all a matter of perception, I haven't read the book, I've always wanted to, but had never found it unfortunately.

But the movie impacted me so much, what you just described of Sarah in the book, how she inspire you to be a better person, well that's exactly what Sarah in the movie did to me, really word by word, I was just 5 when I first watched the movie but all my childhood and I could say the rest of my life, I'm 22 now it's been majorly influenced by Sara, watching her made me want to be her, a gentle girl, thinking always of others first, a believer, etc. It's difficult to put on words how much the movie influenced my life and thoughts, so like I said it's a matter of perception, Im not gonna dimissed the book, but in my opinion the movie is perfect the way it is, and so is the portrayal of Sara :)

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] entertainmentalice 14 years ago

Oh, you forgot! There really were diamond mines after all, and the gentleman who has been searching for her gives her her share of the wealth. And it is great wealth, indeed. But no matter what happens to Sara, she behaves with honor and dignity and NEVER does the horrid, stupid, spiteful things to get back at people that she does in this dreadful film.

I truly love the book. I hate the movie.

[–] ash341986 14 years ago

I must repeat what everyone else has already said: YOU'VE GOT TO READ IT! because reading it is so different from the movie.

This is one of the stories that I have enjoyed since I was in the third or fourth grade in elementary school. I have heard about the storyline first, and then when I was in the fifth grade, when I first read it in Chinese (English is my second language), I found I could not put it down, since Sara has all the traits I longed to have as well. So over the years, again and again, I borrowed it from the library, read, reread, returned it, and borrowed, read, reread... even until I bought the original English version in the 10th grade, I kept reading it over and over again. And I have to say, it was Sara that made me so earnest to learn French!

And as I grow older and began to study literature, I actually found apart from the theme of being a princess, there is more you can find in the novella. I found why the author, Frances Hogson Burnett, noted that Sara is not an angel though being a kind little princess. I found what made Lavinia so mean and the other characters the way they are in the story.

Recently I even found what the real problem of the Seminary is, and what might happen to it afterwards. I found Miss Minchin really has no idea of investment, and that's why she needs to try to keep the richest pupils comfortable. And she might want to hire Lavinia as one of her faculty to please her father when she graduates, if the British society at that time was similar to the time when Jane Eyre came out, but she cannot be as dominant as she used to be. Whether Miss Minchin will continue to be the headmistress or Miss Amelia will succeed her, Miss Minchin will probably still be meddling with school affairs, and Amelia, though being finally a little tougher at the end of the novella, will still take her advice anyway to a certain extend. Then they'll have to make a lot of changes to save the school.

[–] rabbyt1 14 years ago

It's sad you put it down and didn't finish it because the ending IS beautiful.

The gentlemen (who the father plays with amnesia later in the movie) is a good friend of the father's and has been searching for her all over in European schools, never thinking she was in the school right next door to him.

It's a beautiful ending even though it's sad that the father is gone :(

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] ash341986 13 years ago

Why, I didn't put it down. Nothing in my post indicated that I didn't finish the book. I actually love the book much more than the movie. I especially like the Large Family, and how Sara gives each member a beautiful name. And how Sara talks to her friends, how Sara learns things (this is not clearly indicated in the book, but I can guess that she learns with her imagination and attention, as book-lovers do), how Sara was found and, of course, how Miss Amelia confront Miss Minchin near the end.